Question 7- Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Question 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Throughout the process of creating our opening sequence we used the following technologies such as, Premiere Pro, Photoshop, Quicktime player, Emaze, After Effects, Piktochart, Powtoon, Wix and Prezi, during the research, planning and editing.

The technologies that are brand new to me are Premiere Pro, After effects, and Quicktime player. 

I have developed skills in Premiere Pro, I learnt the basics at how to edit for example the functions and how to add sound and titles. Some effects that I used in Premiere Pro include dissolves. Dissolves allow you to transition between scenes smoothly. We also experimented with sound using effects such as the Bandpass effect in order to alter the voice slightly and make it scary suitable for our genre.
 I also developed skills in Quicktime player, this was used to create our audience feedback. I also developed skills in Photoshop, we used this to create our production ident. When using photoshop a lot of effects were used to try and create our ident. I have also developed my skills in After effects when creating our production ident, since it was our first time using the program we had to get used to it in order to create the effects of the sand.

Photoshop needs careful use and planning in order to apply effects that you want in your product. For example, when creating our ident we needed to watch tutorials and change certain aspects of our plan in order for it to work. Additionally, we needed to continuously start again with our ident due to mistakes or new ideas after looking at tutorials. 

The presentation softwares I used were Powtoons, Prezi, Piktochart, Emaze and Wix. These allowed me to be more interacting by using videos and images in order to make my blog more visual and pleasing to the eye. The internet was very helpful during the research process as it allowed us to develop our ideas and find alternative ways to display our information. For example, different presentation softwares.


The technologies used during production include camera equipment, a DSLR, Fig Rig, GoPro, and Tripod.

We used the fig rig for tracking shots and for hand held shots so it was more stable and less shaky. An example of when we used tracking shots is when the girl is making her way towards the door after it has been knocked on, also when the boy is walking upstairs. These both create tension as it enables the audience to see where the character is going,making them feel apprehensive as if they are being followed. 

The GoPro, although we did not end up using any footage filmed by it, was used for POV shoots and Close ups this is so the audience could identify with the characters. 

The DSLR was used to film all the shots of our opening sequence. The tripod was also used to reduce shakiness and for establishing and long shots. An example of a long shot in our opening sequence is when the girl steps outside to check who is at the door, in the background the audience is able to see the killer who then quickly sneaks into the house. This also creates tension because the whereabouts of the killer is unknown to the character and almost makes them annoyed as she is naive and doesn't see him.

The technologies that were new to me was the GoPro, I was able to find out more about it such as it's not suitable to use in water as it could damage the camera. It is typically used for POV shots so you are able to see what the character is looking at, which can be achieved by wearing it across the forehead. 

Question 5- How did you attract/address the audience?

This video is of people giving us feedback on our opening sequence, this then helped us to make further changes and improvements. Below is a video in response to the feedback we were given.

Audience Feedback:

This video is in response to the feedback we received on our opening sequence. We wrote some questions that they would answer and this video explains the feedback and the our response.

Screencast Video:

This video explains our audience research we received from our survey we gave out.

Director's Commentary:

This video is an explanation of why we chose to include certain aspects in our opening sequence, such as why we used certain camera shots, why we used certain editing techniques, our reasons for the lighting and sound.

Question 4-Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question 3- What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?

Question 2-How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 1- How does your media product support, develop or challenge the conventions of other media texts?

Reflection

First Shoot

We were able to get a few shots done, we were set back due to a few difficulties which we were able to fix before the next shoot. We focused on costumes and the mise en scene a lot, a lot of work was also spent on deciding what to shoot first and framing the shot. This was our first day so we weren't very confident but that changed as we progressed.

Second Shoot

We finished shooting the rest of the shots and re-shot a few, costumes and the set was the same as before. The whole process was a lot faster as we were more comfortable with the location and what we were going to film. 

Third Shoot

We changed the role of one of the actors, he was made to play just the killer. The costumes and location stayed the same as we re-shot the majority of the shots to improve. This process was quick as we were familiar with the location and considering we only changed a few shots, mise en scene and everything stayed the same. 

Promotion website

I created a website in order to promote our opening sequence, below is the link to the website.

http://edenbanana1.wix.com/mysite

First draft

This is our first draft of our opening sequence, in order to conform to the horror genre we chose to re shoot the majority of our shots in order to match our genre and please our audience.